SEE. ACT. CHANGE.
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We arrived in Chisinau on October 13th afternoon, and once we found our accommodation, we decided to go for a small walk on the city. We kept discussing in how to improve our workshops and after a quiet dinner, we continued working on our local visits. On the morning of October 14th, we had a meeting with local organizations in the office of the Moldovan Christian Aid (MCA) in Chisinau. Four organizations sent representatives, including MCA. Life Without Limits is a youth group created in 2006, first focused on summer camps, where they would offer the possibility for kids from rural areas to meet and do activities together. It quickly evolved into a more bigger action. They created clubs in different cities, where teenagers would find a safe and comfortable place to discuss, to learn life skills and avoid personal problems. They focus on this target group because once older, the young adults leave for army or move abroad seeking work. Life Without Borders has been the witness of the rise of alcoholism and addiction among young people. This is explained by the fact their parents are abroad (to work for more money) and they miss the father/mother figure in their life. That's the reason LWB tries to create a community, not only in each individual club, but also interregional meeting. Yet, they encounter one big problem; they lack committed people to be the leader of each club, and they cannot reach their goal of making a club movement that could be spread abroad. Beginning of Life is a bigger organization, focused on teenagers. It started by dealing with women rights and abortion, but soon realized Church needed to be more active in the society. After noticing that Moldova lacks an entrepreneurial spirit and only 5% of money sent from abroad are invested, they decided to fight this issue, among a few others. They have rehabilitation and prevention centers, they raise awareness in schools about exploitation (sexual, psychological). They have also created a 2 years program called Way to Success. Every week, around 250 youngsters in groups of 15 to 20 people attend this program, where during the first year they learn about themselves and on the second about society (they also have to make a social project during this last year). Two or three Christians volunteers per group are also present, to give the teenagers the opportunity to also develop themselves spiritually. Once graduated, they are trained for business and social studies, and most of them become volunteers in the future. They still struggle with families that forbid their children to join the program because of religious and social beliefs.